Napoleon Bonaparte (6)

Still
hoping for peace negotiations, Bonaparte delayed leaving the capital
for too long and on his march back to France disaster
hit the Grande Armee.

Appalling
cold, lack of supplies and constant attacks by Russian forces whittled
away the once-magnificent army so that when it finally stumbled
out of Russia its survivors numbered fewer than 20,000.

Seeing
the French almost on their knees the revenge-seeking Prussians broke
their alliance with Paris and, together with Sweden, joined the
Tsar's campaign to kick the French out of Germany.

The
1813 Campaign through Germany saw
a weakened Bonaparte fight and win the battles of Lutzen,
Bautzen and Dresden,
but the sheer weight of numbers caught up with him at Leipzig,
where some 200,000 Frenchmen took on 400,000 enemy troops in
a massive three-day battle.

Defeated, and his forces also facing an unbeaten and advancing British
army in Spain, Bonaparte gathered strength for his last roll of
the die - the battle for France.

The
following campaign saw Bonaparte return to his brilliant best and
he won battle after battle with weak and inexperienced forces pitted
against seasoned and seemingly innumerable enemies.

Finally,
however, the numbers told and he was forced to abdicate by his marshals
on 6 April 1814. He gave a final farewell
to his Old Guard at Fontainbleau on 20 April and chose 600 men to
go into exile with him on Elba.

On the island Bonaparte plotted his return and taking advantage
of lax security and in the knowledge there was a growing resentment
of the restored Bourbons and Louis XVIII, he landed in France in
early March of 1815.

Despite
being branded an Enemy of Humanity by his enemies, the French people
flocked to him and within months he had rebuilt his army for the
expected arrival of the armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden
and Britain.